30 Teams in 30 Days: Tampa Bay Devil Rays

I have to admit, I’m not too enthused about writing this team report, and should probably title it “Does Anyone Really Care?” but nonetheless here is the 2005 preview of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Tampa Bay is a bit of an intriguing team. They have a lot of good young players either on the roster or about to come up to the majors. Carl Crawford is one of the best unknown guys in the league, as is Aubrey Huff. The Devil Rays have a good nucleus of young guys, and did a good job of filling in veterans around those young players.

The outfield looks to be very solid. Aubrey Huff will transition from the infield to left field until Rocco Baldelli is back. Baldelli tore his ACL in November and is not expected back until June or July at the earliest. If Huff can’t handle the move to left, Carl Crawford will shift back to left and young Joey Gathright will be the starting leftfielder. Carl Crawford is an excellent defender and good leadoff hitter, and Danny Bautista gives the Rays a veteran slugger in right field.

The Rays have two young infielders who have a chance to play every day in Jorge Cantu and prized prospect B.J. Upton. Cantu played in 50 games last year, collected 52 hits and batting .301. As an insurance policy, the Devil Rays inked future Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar to mentor Cantu. Unless Cantu has a spectacular spring, Alomar will win the starting job at second, I don’t see Robby Alomar coming off the bench. If Aubrey Huff isn’t in left he’ll be the starting first baseman, otherwise that job will go to Travis Lee. Lee has a good glove, but is no where near the player he was supposed to be coming up in the Diamondbacks system. Alex Gonzalez was signed as a free agent, and will move from shortstop to third base. The shortstop job will be the other battle on this roster. Julio Lugo finds himself in a battle with B.J. Upton. Lugo has always had a ton of potential, but a ten cent brain. Upton has a ton of potential and looked alright in limited time last year. Rounding out the infield is the catcher Toby Hall.

The Devil Rays have a young ace in the making in Scott Kazmir. Two or three years down the road we are going to wonder why the Mets gave up Kazmir for Victor Zambrano. Other than Kazmir, the rotation really lacks any notable pitching. Hideo Nomo and Denny Neagle were both non-roster invitees to spring training, and will both probably crack the opening day rotation, or at least see extended looks during the regular season. The strength of the pitching lies in the bullpen.

Danys Baez did a good job closing games for this team last year, ending up with 30. 30 saves for a team that didn’t win that many games means virtually every time he was called upon he did the job. Surrounding Baez are Lance Carter, Jesus Colome, Travis Harper, and lefty Trever Miller. All four of those guys had an era under 4.00 last year, with Carter and Harper proving to be the workhorses of the staff pitching in over 79 innings a piece. This bullpen is quietly one of the best in baseball, and if the starting staff can pitch well enough to give the bullpen leads, the Rays will win a lot more games this year.

5 Burning Questions

5. Where will Aubrey Huff play?
His success hinges on where he plays, and more importantly stays. I don’t think Huff will have a successful season if he gets shifted around from position to position.

4. Will Center be Rocco’s place?
Will Rocco Baldelli be back at all this year? The absolute earliest you can expect him back is June, even so you’ve got to expect him to be rusty. If Baldelli can come back it adds a totally different element to this team that could possibly propel them into the middle of their division.

3. Youth Movement
Will Jorge Cantu and B.J. Upton beat out veteran players Roberto Alomar and Julio Lugo to win a starting job? If the Devil Rays want to sell tickets, yes. If they want to win now, maybe the answer is still yes.

2. Kazmir and……
Who is going to round out this pitching staff. Dewon Brazelton, Mark Hendrickson and Doug Waechter just don’t do it for me. Will Hideo Nomo and Denny Neagle win spots in this rotation?

1. Is he ready
A lot is going to be expected of Scott Kazmir this season. Is he ready to be the ace of the pitching staff already? The Devil Rays will at least need him to make strides towards it this season.

Fearless Predictions

Hideo Nomo will win a job in the rotation.
Aubrey Huff will play a majority of time in left field.
Roberto Alomar will beat out Jorge Cantu.
B.J. Upton will beat out Julio Lugo.
The Devil Rays will once again have one of the better bullpens in the AL.
Rocco Baldelli will miss nearly the entire season.
The Devil Rays not finish in last place in the AL East.